Essex

DEWEY, John

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 1042-1043 [excerpt from 
a section on the history of Maidstone; authored by William HEYWOOD, Esq., of 
Lancaster, County, New Hampshire, a native of Essex County, Vermont]

Dr. John DEWEY, for many years a resident of Guildhall [Essex County, 
Vermont], and before his death for many years a resident of Maidstone [Essex 
County, Vermont], one of the remarkable men of Essex County, was born 05 
December 1794 at Hanover [Grafton County], New Hampshire. He received his 
education in the common schools and academy of his native town, and was 
educated in his profession mainly under the tuition of Dr. Nathan SMITH. Dr. 
SMITH was a professor in the medical college, and a man of great learning and 
skill in his profession. Dr. DEWEY received his medical degree from 
Dartmouth College, and commenced the practice of his profession when very 
young, in Eaton, in Canada [village of Eaton, Province of Quebec; Canada 
East]. He remained there until he was attacked with a disease in his eyes, 
which for a time threatened him with blindness. After recovering from this 
infliction, he established himself for a time at New Chester, now Hill 
[Merrimack County], New Hampshire, thence he removed to Lancaster [Coos 
County], New Hampshire, and about 1822 he established himself at Guildhall 
[Essex County, Vermont].

For nearly twenty years he [Dr. John DEWEY] was the leading physician in this 
section. Here he became a practitioner of large experience and great skill 
and judgment. No man was more relied upon in cases of difficulty and danger. 
It was, I think, in 1824, that a terrible disease in the form of dysentery 
visited this section of country, and the mortality was very great. [The year 
1824 could be in error, either from the author's recollection or a 
typographical error in the text; the Caledonia County, Vermont, biography of 
Benjamin F. DEMING, for example, relates that he died of a similar disease in 
1834.] During this sickness, which continued for nearly two months, Dr. 
DEWEY was constantly upon the ride and in attendance upon the sick, and for 
weeks did not take off his clothes to lie down for a night's sleep. And it 
was universally considered that he treated the disease with success and skill.

In February 1832 he [Dr. John DEWEY] was married to Mary P., daughter of 
Capt. Thomas CARLISLE, of Lancaster [Coos County], New Hampshire. Dr. DEWEY 
gave up his profession as a business about 1840, upon becoming involved in 
business of other kinds that required his whole time. In 1841 he moved to a 
beautiful farm in Maidstone, where from his door he could overlook two 
hundred acres of good interval, part of his possessions; and here ten years 
later, when things not thought of had come to pass, he could see for miles on 
the opposite side of the Connecticut River the cars of the Grand Trunk 
Railroad as they passed to and from the chief city of Maine [Portland] 
to the chief city of Canada [Montreal]. Here he and his accomplished wife 
kept a most hospitable home; and many have been the times that acquaintances 
far and near have assembled there to enjoy such entertainment as no one else 
could dispense, for he, besides his liberality, had the manners of an 
accomplished gentleman; and was also a man of fine proportions and presence. 
The stranger also from city or country who might chance to stop in the 
neighborhood was sure to be invited to partake of their hospitalities. And 
there was no ostentation in this, but such generosity was a characteristic. 
And the poor never went away hungry from his door; many have been the bags 
full and the baskets full and the back loads with which the destitute of his 
neighborhood have been loaded from his stores.

Dr. DEWEY was a man of extraordinary perseverance and great energy of 
character. In politics he was a Whig, and later a Republican, and it never 
was with half assent that he supported and advocated the measures of his 
party. I find for certain that for twelve years he was a member of the 
Legislature of Vermont, and as I have not fell access to means of 
information, I am not sure but that he was longer. His first election was to 
the House in 1826, and his last to the Senate in 1851. He was also for 
several years judge of the county court, a member of the council of censors, 
and for several years he received appointments from the Legislature, such as 
director of the state prison, etc. The Doctor was able in debate, and many 
of his speeches would be a credit to any debater and worthy of any legislative 
body. But of these nothing remains but in the memory of hearers, as in those 
days, and it is mostly so now, none of the debates of that body were 
reported. In the course of his business he accumulated in his hands a large 
amount of lands, consisting of many thousand acres in Essex County and in 
the adjoining county of Coos in New Hampshire. To pay the taxes annually on 
so large an amount of unproductive property absorbed quite an income. To 
most persons it seemed that he misjudged in his expectation that these would 
some day become very valuable, but the event has proved the correctness of 
his judgment. In the latter part of his business life he had met with many 
losses, but the increase of the value of timber has made these wild lands 
valuable, and these were left to his family, and make an ample estate.

Dr. DEWEY entered into the support of the government with zeal to put down 
the rebellion, and lent every aid in his power to that end. In a summer 
evening he rode to the house of a neighbor, where in course of talk upon 
political affairs he became excited, not from opposition (for in political 
opinion they did not differ), and on his way home he was attacked by a 
paralysis of the brain, and when he arrived home he was insensible, and was 
carried into the house and died the next morning , which was 11 July 1862 [at 
the age of sixty-seven years]. No man in all the community could be more 
widely missed. It is always remarkable how soon the community adjust 
themselves to the loss of any individual, no matter how great a space he may 
have occupied in the business and affairs of his section. But to the family 
and near friends of such a man the void does not close, and every day those 
that depended upon him feel that no one else can perform for them what he was 
accustomed to do, nor make whole the circle broken by his being taken away.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly